Liberty bound in Charity: A Meditation on 1st Corinthians 8

St. Paul begins this short chapter in the context of eating meat offered to idols.  In the ancient world, it was not uncommon for much of the meat offered as sacrifices to pagan gods, to end up in the public market.  Without any significant means to preserve meat, all those sacrificed animals usually went to feed the priests and servants of the temple, then what was left over was sold.  Because pagan idolatry was the basic religious backdrop of the ancient world, most of the meat sold in the markets was at some point sacrificed to a pagan god.

Rather than telling the Christians in pagan lands that they could not buy and eat meat, he tells them that in reality, these pagan gods are not gods at all.  He knows that any pagan god was at best a ridiculous myth, and at worst a demon, but never could they be gods except to the deluded people who worshipped them.  Since there is only one true God, who makes and sustains all things, such sacrifices were meaningless to the Christian who knows that both food and the one who eats it, are ultimately responsible to the Creator.  The Christian had liberty to eat whatever was available as a gift from God, and to God alone did he give thanks for it.

But, given the pagan world in which they lived, Paul was quick to remind the Corinthian Christians, that appearances do matter.  For example, to the people who actually believed in their idols and worshipped them as gods, the Christian had to be careful that in eating meat sacrificed to idols, he did not give the impression that he worshipped those false gods, too.  The Christian must only and always worship the one true God:  Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  This is made clear in the first commandment, and reinforced by Jesus who declares that He alone is the Way, Truth, and Life—the only way to the Father.  Only the true God has created and sustained all things; only Jesus has suffered and died for the sins of the world; only the Holy Spirit proceeds forth to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole Christian Church on earth.  Therefore, only the Trinity in Unity, and the Unity in Trinity is to be worshipped and adored.  The Christian must never give the impression, or present the false confession, that he is willing to worship or tolerate any other gods along side or before the one true God.

Even as St. Paul teaches the liberty of the Christian, he also teaches that Christian liberty is bound up in charity and compassion for the neighbor.  No Christian is free to exercise his liberty apart from love for his brothers and sisters, because the Law of Love is more fundamental than the Law of Liberty.  We learn this not only from St. Paul, but from the very nature of God Himself:  for He who is ultimately and infinitely free, has bound Himself to human flesh so that He might be the Atonement for all mankind.  It is divine and eternal love that bounds the Creator’s freedom, first within the Godhead between each of the Divine Persons, and secondly binds Him to His people by the Promise of His Gospel.  God shows to us something better than pure, unfettered freedom.  He shows to us a freedom made infinitely more noble when it is infused with and bound by love.  He becomes to us the image we are called to reflect, as Jesus—fully God and fully man—binds His freedom to love in the Cross.

As we survey ourselves and the whole Christian Church on earth, it is clear that we have a preferred fondness for our liberty over love.  Being selfish and sinful creatures, our inclination is to seize what we feel should be our freedom and our rights, usually at the expense of our neighbor’s need or weakness.  We demand the hymns and songs we prefer, over the desires of others; we demand the forms of worship we prefer, over the desires of others; we demand the offices and duties we prefer, over the needs and requirements of others; we demand power and prestige, over the wounded consciences of others.  We build for ourselves shrines to our gifts and talents, while ignoring the neighbors we should be serving through them.  We heap to ourselves titles and offices, forgetting that the Lord has said that the chief amongst His people, will be their servant.  While hymns and worship, offices and titles, forms and functions may all reside within the liberty of the Christian, they are never given unbounded by love.

In such things, St. Paul admonishes us, that even in the matter of something so trivial and meaningless as meat, he would rather not eat meat again so long as the world stood, than by his freedom in eating be a cause for a single brother or sister to stumble.  And why?  Because those brothers and sisters belong to Christ, who was crucified to save them.  To whom do you think you will give an account of how you use your freedom, but to Him who bound His freedom in love to save both you and them?  This is the scandal of Christian freedom run amok—that it uses the saving love of Christ as an excuse to jeopardize the salvation of others.  Unbounded freedom is not what we learn from our Savior.  Rather, it is the old lesson of the devil and his fallen angels, who prefer freedom without love.

To you, and to me, the love of our Savior calls out once again, this time in the words of St. Paul.  Rejoice in the freedom and liberty you have been given from sin, death, and the devil.  Rejoice in the salvation won for you by the precious Blood of Christ.  Rejoice that you are no longer under the Law of sin and death, but raised up to eternal life by grace through faith in Christ alone.  Even so, cast your eyes upon your Savior to learn what true liberty and freedom is:  it is love and compassion for God and man, a mystery of faith which cannot be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus.  Our Christian freedom is purchased by the death of the Son of God, so that we might be raised up by His Holy Spirit, to walk in newness of life.  Through Jesus we learn to bind our freedom in love, so that our fellowship is with Him—and through Him, with the Holy Trinity, now and forever more.  Amen.

Fishing for People: A Meditation on Mark 1

I confess, that the fishing analogy found in the Gospels has caused me struggle over the years—not because it is wrong, but because of the baggage I bring with me to that concept.  For me, fishing is usually done with a pole, bait, and tackle.  It is usually a casual occupation, where I seek solitude or limited company, enjoying early morning hours around a gently waking lake.  I find a certain pleasurable challenge in matching the tackle to the time of the season, and the kind of fish I’m pursuing.  While much of my fishing experience is at the mercy of the weather, the calendar, the geography, or the fish population, I have the ability to plan and adapt my techniques and tools to maximize my potential for a catch.  I become an active participant in the fishing experience, and my methodology is a significant contributor to the success of my efforts.

This is not a good way to see how Jesus called His disciples to become fishers of men.  My experience of fishing is something recreational and largely tied to my own talents.  The kind of fishing Jesus is referring to, is a vocational service tied to His methods and His means.  Jesus did not call His disciples based on their own talents or ability to read the waters, but rather He called them so that He might form them in His own image, and give to them His own tackle for the work.  Before calling His disciples, St. Mark notes what Jesus was doing:

Now after that John was put in prison,

Jesus came into Galilee,

preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying,

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand:

repent ye, and believe the gospel.

For starters, Jesus’ disciples don’t have to worry about discerning the proper time or season, because Jesus does that for them already.  He tells them that the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand.  No need for His disciples to wonder if they are in the right place, or at the right time, or in the right season—Jesus proclaims that everywhere is the right place, every time is the right time, and every season is the right season, because His Kingdom is present by virtue of His divine presence.  Because Jesus the King has come to be the sacrifice which will redeem all mankind from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil, He has brought His Kingdom near to everyone in the world.  The time is fulfilled, and the waiting is over.  The time of grace has come upon the whole world, and Jesus has called His disciples into the work of proclaiming it.

Next, Jesus doesn’t leave them wondering what bait and tackle to use, or give them a complex series of formulas to differentiate times and seasons.  Rather, He teaches them to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins, which is the Gospel of His salvation for all mankind.  There isn’t another formula for various different people, but the very same means for everyone.  Just as there is only one Jesus whose Blood is shed for all mankind, so there is only one Name given under heaven whereby all mankind may be saved.  There isn’t a different set of tackle for the people of Asia, or the Middle East, or South America, or the Polynesian Islands.  There is only one message of repentance and forgiveness in Jesus Christ, which Jesus Himself gives to His disciples so that they may become His fishers of men.  Faith and Repentance, coming to every human heart by the power of the Holy Spirit working through Christ’s Law and Gospel faithfully preached, is now and shall ever be the means by which Jesus gives salvation to all mankind.  It is by Jesus’ Word, who is Himself the very Word of God, that His disciples will participate in gathering all mankind to Himself.

What solace this brings to the church in every age!  We are not called to wonder if our time and place is right for our tasks, because Jesus has told us that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, right here and right now.  Jesus makes every time and place the right time and place, by coming near to every time and place through His Word and Sacraments.  We do not have to wonder if we have the right tools to accomplish the work He has given us, because He gives His own divine Word to accomplish His will.  While the devil may deceive and distract the church, telling her that she must change or die, find new consultants and new methodologies to reach new generations, and mimic the cultural vanities of the world so as to be relevant, the Word of Christ neither flinches nor changes.  The devil, a liar from the beginning, creates fear in the disciples of Christ by tempting them away from their Savior’s Word and promises.  Jesus, however, continues to work saving faith in all who will hear Him, repent and believe His Gospel.  Jesus’ Gospel is simple, eternal, and immutable, no matter how convoluted the contrivances of the evil one may be in any generation.

And Jesus’ Kingdom is still near at hand, in our very midst, as He comes near to us in His Word.  Jesus continues to fortify the faith and repentance of His people in His Church, using the same means He uses to call all mankind to grace, forgiveness, mercy, and eternal life.  For wherever Christ is, there His saints will be gathered around Him and His Word of Life.  There, by the power of His Spirit working through His Word, people are continually called out of their darkness, and into His marvelous light.  There, Jesus continues to call disciples by His Word and Spirit, to go forth into the world with His means of grace, making disciples of all nations by baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe everything Jesus has taught by His Holy Word.  There, the kingdom of darkness is put to flight, the sacrificial work of seeking and saving the lost continues, and new generations of saints and martyrs are formed in the very image of Christ their Savior.

There, where Christ is present, are gathered His people around His means of grace, becoming by His Word and Spirit the very Body of Christ.  There we both rest and work in His wonderful grace, repenting and believing His Everlasting Gospel of salvation.  Amen.

Flee Fornication: A Meditation on 1st Corinthians 6

In this season of Epiphany, we continue to reflect on how God makes Himself known to His people through His Word.  His Word, both written in the Holy Scriptures and enfleshed in His Only Begotten Son, can never be divided from each other—for the Word Made Flesh who dwelt among us full of grace and truth, is the font from which the Word Written sprang forth by the Prophets and Apostles.  God has always sought to make Himself known to His People and His whole creation, and His means have always been rooted in His Eternal Word.

Amongst our readings for this week, is the sixth chapter of St. Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth.  Many scandalous errors and evils were occurring in Corinth’s church, and it was Paul’s duty as an Apostle, a Servant of the Word, to warn the people of the dangers of these sins.  The chapter begins by ridiculing the church for being unable or unwilling to judge even the least of matters among themselves, preferring to seek litigation in the pagan courts for perceived slights.  But then Paul transitions to the weightier matters they should have been able to judge more soberly—sins against God and His Holy Law.  He begins by reminding the people:

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not

inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither

fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor

abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves,

nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners,

shall inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were

some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye

are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the

Spirit of our God.

Paul shines the brutal light of God’s Law upon the Corinthian Christians, so that they might understand just how dangerous a game they were playing.  They must know, that those who surrender themselves to such sins, shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.  God is not mocked, and the Christian who thinks he can play safely in sin because of his baptism into Christ, will awaken to a horrible reality.  For grace can only come by faith, and faith cannot coexist with mortal, unrepentant sin.  There is no such thing as a saving faith which willfully lives in sin, refuses to repent, and prefers the sordid company of devils to the Light of Christ.  Be not deceived, for regardless of one’s denomination or affiliation, of his respective office inside or outside the Church of Christ, no one who lives in mortal, unrepentant sin, shall be saved.

And if there were any particular sin that is brashly abused in our day and age, it is fornication.  St. Paul spends the rest of this chapter warning the Corinthian Christians about this heinous corruption, which unlike so many other sins, is actually perpetrated against our own body.  Sexual sin, regardless of its form (fornication, adultery, sodomy, etc.,) dishonors and commits sacrilege against a body which is supposed to be a temple for the Holy Spirit—a body that is united to Christ our Bridegroom by grace through faith in Him.  Disordered sexuality corrupts not only the body of the Christian, but the soul as well, adulterating the relationship of that soul with her Savior, Jesus Christ.  In St. Paul’s words:

Now the body [is] not for fornication, but for the

Lord; and the Lord for the body. And God hath both

raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.

Know ye not that your bodies are the

members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ,

and make [them] the members of an harlot? God forbid.

What? know ye not that he which is joined to an

harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is

without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth

against his own body. What? know ye not that your

body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you,

which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For

ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your

body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

To anyone who thinks that the Word of God is somehow out of place in our age, let them ponder the prescient words of St. Paul, written to a city of Christians nearly 2000 years ago, and to the cities of our world today.  Dalliance in prostitution, cohabitation, homosexuality, and adultery were just as well known in the ancient world, as they are today.  Perhaps our tools for exercising them have developed, but the sins remain—whether you find your prostitute on the street or through Craig’s List, or satisfy your lust through bar flies or internet pornography—the sexual sins remain exactly what they are in light of God’s Law.  They are evil and wicked, separating us from God and the salvation earned for us through Christ’s Vicarious Atonement.  They are damnable, no matter what window dressing we put on them, or how pervasive they seem in our culture.  We do our children and our friends no favors by leaving them to feel comfortable in such sins, as they approach the hideous reality of an eternity separated from the love of God.

But thanks be to God, the hope of the Corinthians is the same hope of New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Seattle—the hope of all mankind, who would be saved from the depravity of sin, and the endless torments of an eternity in hell.  That hope which springs eternal with hope and forgiveness, is the blessed Gospel of Jesus of Christ.  For it was for our transgressions that He was sacrificed upon that Cross so many centuries ago, and it was for our wickedness that He died.  For all our sins, including those of distorted sexuality, He has poured out His Blood, that sinners such as us might be washed clean.  In His death is our life and salvation, and in His resurrection is our hope secure.  For Christ has come to seek and to save the prostitute, the fornicator, the adulterer, and the homosexual, and He has accomplished that salvation through the forgiveness won on Calvary.

And how does so great a salvation from so terrible a fate, come to sinners like you and I?  By that same Word who has made satisfaction for us upon the Cross.  That Word comes to each of us, declaring the reality of our sins and the hell we are due because of them.  And that Word comes to each of us with the free gift of absolution and forgiveness, which is the only Good News that can salve a sinner’s conscience.  That Word, coming to us as both Law and Gospel, works faith and repentance in all who will hear, by the power of His Holy Spirit.  That Word takes dead sinners like you and I, gives us a new birth from above by Water and the Spirit, and sends us forth into a fallen world to strive for holiness, having a new love for God and neighbor motivated by the Love of God which first came to us in Jesus.  That Word continues to seek and to call us, even when we fall, so that we might return again and again to faith and repentance, and thereby to live in His grace, mercy, and forgiveness.  That Word, the very Son of God calling to us by His Spirit through His Holy Scriptures, calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, binding us together into the blessed communion of the saints, both here and in the world to come.

That Word—His Word—is our salvation, now and forevermore.  Hear Him.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.

Dead to Sin: A Meditation on Romans 6

St. Paul continues his discussion of life in Christ, with an examination of sin.  He identifies some fundamental truths that people have been trying to avoid for centuries, and no less in our own time.  At root, there are only two paths in all the world:  one of life, and one of death.  While it may look like there are a multitude of philosophies, theories, and religions out there, all that confusion can be broken down into these two fundamental realities.  There is God and His way, known to us by His Word, and there is every other way, known to us by their respective conflict with God and His Word.  Only in God, the author and sustainer of life, can there be the way of life.  This is why Jesus can say that He is truly the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one can come to the Father apart from Him.  The difference between Jesus and His Way, and all the other ways of the world, is as great and as stark as the difference between eternal life and eternal death.

Sin and evil, properly understood, are deviations from God and His holy will, made known to us by His Word.  Always and everywhere, evil is a corruption of the good will and creation of God.  As some have reflected throughout the centuries, evil cannot exist by itself, but only as a cancer or corruption of something already good.  Even so, where sin exists in the world, it corrodes and defiles things and people originally made good, twisting them into something contrary to God’s holiness and righteousness.  Sin and evil twist what was originally good into that which is not, drawing everything it touches away from life into the way of death.

The first to experience this wicked twisting, were the devil and his evil angels.  Corrupted by their own pride and rebellion, they sought to be what they were not created to be, and thereby fell into the twisted wickedness of their own evil.  Originally created good and pure, with a free will and power beyond human reasoning, the devil and his evil angels are now completely contorted in their wickedness, wielding their still frightening power in the aim to corrupt and enslave all of God’s good creation.  They are ancient, evil, intelligent, and powerful… and they are the beginning of all that is wicked and corrupted in the universe.  It was they who tempted our first parents to follow them into their Fall, and they who exercised dominion over the whole human race once we left our Creator to follow His horrific enemies.

But our God was not content to leave mankind in the way of death they had chosen, deceived by the wicked lies of the devil.  Into our way of death God sent His Only Begotten Son, so that He might suffer and die for us all.  Our Lord Jesus Christ, the very Word of God Made Flesh, steps into our death, and trades His life for ours, so that we might be brought back into His life.  Because Jesus is the only Way of everlasting Life, reconciling all who will repent and believe in Him by the power of His Word, there now exist in this world two paths for all mankind.  There is the way of death in which we find ourselves from birth as slaves to sin and the devil, and there is the way of life in Christ found by grace through faith in His saving Gospel.

It’s important for us to get this sequencing of events right, according to God’s Word.  God did not invent or push upon us the way of death.  Rather, He created us good, fully made in His wonderful image.  It was we who invited in the devil, and with him, our own slavery to sin and death.  This cursed earth upon which we live out our short and painful lives is a result of the death we brought upon in, and our suffering and death is justified.  But it is God who comes to our rescue, that we might know the way of life again.  It is God in the Person of His Son, who steps into our death, so that we might have His everlasting life.  God is not the author of sin, slavery, or death, but rather of redemption, righteousness, love, and life.

For this reason, the Christian will always find himself at war in this world.  By our fallen nature, we see around us the Law of sin and death, and the old marks of our slavery as sinners.  Our bodies break down, we grow old, sick, and frail.  We bury our fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, and sometimes even our own children.  But the blessedness of the saints in Christ Jesus, is that though we justly endure this world and all its corruption as sinners, we are alive forever by the grace and forgiveness of our Savior.  Thus even though we die, our lives are hidden in Christ, so that we live forever in Him.  We are alive: though we suffer, though we break, though we fall into the earth or the fire or the water.  We are alive, because the life of Christ Jesus lives in us by the power of His grace.

This is the work St. Paul tells us is accomplished through Holy Baptism.  By the infinite power of the Word of Christ, it is Jesus who baptizes you into His death, and Jesus who raises you up to newness of life.  It is Jesus who makes you a servant of righteousness by the power of His Word, speaking to you His Holy Law and His Everlasting Gospel.  It is Jesus who renews the grace given to you in your baptism when, after having fallen to sin and temptation, you hear His voice anew, and repent and believe.  Just as we do not credit the worthiness of the preacher in his preaching when the Word of Christ brings faith and life into the hearts of its hearers, so we do not credit the pastor or the believer when the Word of Christ baptizes a person in His death and life.  It is not in the person of the pastor or of the believer, nor in any human work that the Christian trusts, but alone in the Word and Work of Christ our Savior.  This is saving faith—a faith which trusts Christ and His Word, and lives in Him by His grace.

To Him alone be all glory and majesty, now and forever!  For He has brought to us the Way of Life, piercing the darkness of our sin and death with the forgiveness won for us through His Holy Cross.  He has broken the shackles of our slavery to the devil, and breathed His Holy Spirit into us, that we may rise up, forgiven and free, alive forever by His Word of grace.  He has reconciled us with the Father, bound us all together by His Holy Spirit, and washed us in His Holy Blood.  Thanks be to Christ our Savior, now and forever more!  Amen.